I am taking a break from the Roto Roundup now that we are into September and many fantasy players focusing on fantasy football. But, I will return to the Roundup in the next day or two. Just taking a breather.
ESPN'S David Schoenfield posted this piece a few days ago, discussing who would you rather have in 2014: Chris Davis or Eric Hosmer. For fantasy owners that is an easy question to answer: Davis. But, he makes a strong case for Hosmer as well, based on how he has hit since the beginning of June this season.
I even wrote about how well he is hitting in the Monday Roundup, and here is an excerpt:
We all know how bad he struggled to start the season, but since the end of May, Hosmer has the following monthly splits:
June: .303-.347-.541, 6 HRs, 17 RBI, 13-8 K-BB
July: .324-.351-.496, 4 HRs, 13 RBI, 17-5 K-BB
August: .323-.388-.476, 4 HRs, 20 RBI, 14-14 K-BB
September: .320-.433-.440, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 6-5 K-BB
Pretty impressive as he is hitting over .300 in each of the last three months and into September, and the power stroke has returned.
Getting back to Schoenfield's article, he ended the article with this projection for Hosmer in 2014:
But who do you like better for 2014? Davis is still a good bet to threaten the 40-homer barrier even if he's not Lou Gehrig (he hit 33 in 2012 in 139 games). Hosmer appears to have found his power stroke and at 24 with three seasons under his belt he should be entering his prime seasons.
It's a tough call. I do believe in Hosmer's improvement a little more than Davis' freakish first-half numbers. In terms of value, they should be pretty close next year, but Hosmer has a chance to become a .300, 30-homer guy if he makes The Leap. I'm not sure just yet that he's going to be that 30-homer guy, however, so I'll give Davis the slight nod for 2014. Unless Hosmer suddenly ups his walk rate, I'll take .270/40 HR Davis over .300/25 HR Hosmer. What do you think?
After reading his article, I posed a different question to my Twitter followers a few nights ago:
Who would you rather have in 2014: Freddie Freeman or Eric Hosmer?
— Ray Guilfoyle (@faketeams) September 9, 2013
I actually think these two are closer, for fantasy purposes, than the Hosmer-Davis comparison. Freeman has enjoyed an all-star 2013 season, hitting .308-.381-.480 with 19 HRs, 76 runs and 96 RBI. Hosmer's season stats are: .303-.357-.450 with 16 HRs, 77 runs, 74 RBI and 11 stolen bases, all after hitting no higher than .269 in the first two months of the season, with ONE home run and 18 RBI.
Freeman has hit .291 or better every month this season, and has hit exactly 4 home runs in every month from May through August, scoring double digit runs with 17+ RBI over the same time period.
Heading into the 2014 season, I prefer Hosmer for fantasy purposes, and maybe I am biased as I own him in my AL only keeper league, as my loyalty comes into play a bit. But, as I have written here before, I think he is all the way back to being the hitter we saw in the minors and in 2011.
Who would you rather have in 2014? Let us know in the comments.